Hello -- I'm not a student in the Sociology department, but I do study the social sciences. The general morale at UCLA is low. The student demonstrations were as peaceful as these things go, but the budget crisis is very real and not expected to get better. Yudof (the president of the entire University of California -- all ten campuses) keeps emphasizing that things like tuition hikes need to happen in order to avoid "brain drain," basically a loss of professorial talent as they escape to schools that won't cut their salaries or research money. I don't think this is a good time to enter the UC at all, especially since PhD programs lock you in for five or six years.
I think the mood at Berkeley is better because it's known as the flagship campus. Nobody will let bad things happen there.